This alphabet activity was created because my daughter adores the alphabet, she loves stamps, and I NEEDED 10 minutes to finish cleaning the bathrooms before my holiday guests arrived. She LOVED it and I wanted to say that while printables are great I know that for me printing something out can be cumbersome. I don’t have my printer out all the time and sometimes I am out of ink. I didn’t have time to make this a printable and I am glad for that now because it shows you that you don’t need it to be pretty and perfect to be useful and fun!

Gather your materials. You will need some paper, something to write on ( I love using clipboards), some letter stamps and stamp pad ( or stickers), and a marker.

Start by writing out the alphabet on a piece of paper leaving out some letters. I wrote out 5 sheets at once because I had a feeling ( and it was right) that my wee one would want to do a bunch.

Prepare the tools you are using with the sheets. You can also just have your little learner write the letters. I didn’t think my little one could accomplish that solo but in the days since we did that I think she might be able to. I am going to make some more sheets and repeat this activity, she loved it so much.

Let the fun begin! Adjust this activity to your child. If they struggle with some of the letters make sure that you have lots of letters they do not struggle with to balance out the success and challenge. If possible have the easy ones as the first few if you know there is a challenge ahead. If they are having a hard time sing the alphabet while touching each letter and when they get to a blank spot the song will act as a prompt. I quickly took pictures of the first sheet – ran next door and cleaned the bathroom while she yelled out which letters she was doing.

Then she called me in because she said she ” Made up an even better letter idea!” She grabbed a highlighter from her basket and started highlighting all the letters. This is a fun and easy way to work on letter formation anywhere but I’d only have kids this young (4) do it if they are interested. If they are resistant work on writing their name and more authentic writing like making signs, writing cards… anything that doesn’t make writing a chore. Start them out on the right foot. That said if they are like my daughter who is fond of writing and wants to do it, have the materials available and support them as they do.

Learning doesn’t only happen with perfect graphics in all sorts of colors so don’t stress about picture perfect printables. They are fun and can add excitement at times but learning will happen when the activity fits the child no matter how pretty something is.

Teaching your children or students about letters means a lot of things. Teaching to recognize and name letters, to know the sound the letters make, and how to make the shape of the letter in it’s upper and lowercase forms. It takes time and finding different dynamic ways to do this can make learning letters a ton of fun. We made upper case button letters and while we made them we tried to think of all the words we could that started with the same sounds. This is part of our Alphabet For Starters series, the goal for this series is to provide hands-on ways to explore letters while also developing other areas like fine motor development, math skills and more.

Gather your materials. You will need some construction paper, a pencil, white glue , and lots of colorful buttons.

Start by having your child choose a letter and write it on the paper. If they are still learning how to make the letter write it for them. They will get a chance to work on the formation with the next step.

Now grab the glue and trace the letter with it. I showed her how to do it with my letter A, then she did hers. I did glue tracing letters with my son a few years ago and plan to do the same with my daughter soon since she is showing a desire to write and form the letters.

Add the buttons! She loved this. I enjoyed watching her take her time picking out which button to add next. We talked about the letter sounds but after that we moved on to the attributes of the buttons themselves. Counting was naturally included as well. Don’t worry about planning topics with this activity beyond the letter sounds but be ready to jump on the topics that naturally arise. I had her estimate how many buttons it would take for her to finish the letter and she was right. She was also very happy about being right!

Kids learn better when they are having fun and engaged in the lesson. My favorite way to teach children is to connect the lesson to their interests , a well loved book ,or some big event like a holiday. That is why I try to give readers so many different themes to keep learning fresh. There is no reason to drill your kids when teaching them the alphabet when there are so many ways to teach letters without flash cards. Here are alphabet activities for every season.

Here are seven great alphabet activities with a fall theme for your child to have fun with.

Writing letters in salt or sand is a classic Montessori activity. They give children a sensory experience while also learning how to form letters. What I have always loved about salt trays is that if a child doesn’t like how their letter turned out they can gently shake it and start again. These items were all bought at the dollar store . You could easily make 4 salt trays for $4 with the supplies listed. Exploring letters in all different ways lets kids experience them and make meaningful connections. Do not worry about how perfect the letters are at this stage, let them explore them and get used to the different kinds of lines and curves that go into them all. This post is part of our Alphabet for Starters series , a series of posts that aim to make learning the alphabet fun and creative instead of full of rote memorization. See more from that series here.

Gather your materials. You will need some sentence strips, a sharpie, scissors, salt, and a pie plate( came in a pack of 4). You could also use a cookie sheet, shoe box lid or casserole dish.

Cut the sentence strips into smaller cards. You could also use flash cards but as you might guess I don’t have any on hand .

Write out letters with the sharpie. You can write uppercase, lowercase, or a mix like I did. Go at whatever pace your child is at but don’t forget to put in a few challenges. For beginners stick with straight line letters like L , T, H and the completely curves ones like C and O they have always been easier in my experience that when you mix the two together. We want kids at this age to have some initial success before we challenge them so that their confidence helps carry them through the harder bits.

Pour in the salt. My daughter LOVED this so much we did it many times over…. and my porch still has salt on it.

Stack the cards and start writing. My daughter who turned 3 in June had a touch time with some of the letters but when I explained to her she could shake and try again she perked up. In one sitting she did 6 letters. Do not expect to go through the whole alphabet especially with a 3 year old or an older child new to this activity.

z

Alphabet Books

f

Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham is a hilarious alphabet book that will have you and your child giggling throughout. The books is all about a zebra who is making an alphabet book and his over zealous friend Moose who is very very excited to be involved. So excited in fact that he can’t wait for M to be called and ends up crashing a bunch of other letters. When M does come he’s been replaced by a mouse. Moose’s reaction will turn your kids giggles into chuckles and all the while they will be working on letter recognition. Love this book!

Sleepy ABC by Margaret Wise Brown . Although I have a legendary hatred of Runaway Bunny I generally love this author. I like this book, and the illustrations will zip you back in time for sure. Unlike many alphabet books it has a great rhythm for reading it all without breaks. My one complaint is that the child is tucked into bed then a few letters later is out listening to a story from another woman not their mom. I am not sure perhaps those are different children, didn’t bug my son one bit, but left me wondering. Like the title suggests it’s a good alphabet book for a bedtime read, it even ends with something I say often ” Go To Sleep!”.

Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming is a wonderful example of what an alphabet book should be. Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers learning their first letters, the text is short , the letters are front and center and the illustrations are fun and interesting. My son loves this book, I grabbed it at the library after remembering how much my Pre K class loved it too.Many alphabet books are too long to read entirety at circle time or in one shot with a toddler but this my 19 month old will sit through Z every time. {This review is from when my son was 19 months old in 2008. His love of this book was really a jumping off point for his love of letters in general. I wish I could say I taught him his letters but really reading this one particular book over and over at his request probably did the trick. }

It’s been beautiful here and I wanted to get outside for a little learning. This gross motor sight word game is fun and was a cinch to adapt to very different ability levels. My son worked on sight words and my daughter on letter recognition. When we played this the first time my kids were not very into it. It was almost dinner, we’d been busy all week , and it was just bad timing. A few days later we played again and it was a huge hit! Smiles, words being yelled out , letters flying into the pretend recycle bin… so I thought my reminder to myself would be a good reminder for you too. Timing is everything and don’t give up if an activity flops. Give it one more try before giving it the ax.

Gather your materials. You will need some ping pong balls, a container, sharpies ,and some painter’s tape if you want to turn your container into a recycle bin like we did.

We went outside and I pretended to be a litter bug throwing recycling ( the ping pong balls) all over our yard. I really spread them out. The rule was that they had to call out the word/letter before running it back to the bin to clean up the yard.

Off they went! They played well but the next time we played it was all giggles and rushing – you can tell in this picture that my son was tired . He hoarded as many balls as he could then ran up to the bin read them all to me and ran back to get another handful. The next time he’d find one, run it over and run to the next. My daughter was overwhelmed with how spread out I made it. The 2nd time we played I kept them in a much smaller space which made a huge difference for her.

Books About Recycling For Kids

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches is awesome! The book takes the reader through the complete process from crude oil, to bottle and then to synthetic fleece. I am not too proud to admit I learned s a few new things and had a few good laughs along the way with the books little bits of humor too. I think most 5 year olds would enjoy this book, and it’s easy to break it down for those unable to sit for this much text.

Little Pirate: Why Do We Recycle? by Innovative Kids is a really fun book about recycling with a pirate theme. Yes a pirate theme. Readers learn about recycling, composting and garbage along with two young pirates who need to clean up their ship. The pirates ask questions about different waste and the wise parrot fills them into the facts like the best bag to use while shopping is a cloth one, and what happens to the metal, glass and paper after we put them in the recycle bin.

Gabby and Grandma Go Green by Monica Wellington is another wonderful book from one of our favorite authors. In the book Gabby and her Grandma spend a day together dedicated to going green. First making a great reusable bag and then using it all around town. I love that they go to the library and that is portrayed as a way to go green as well as a place to learn more about environmental efforts. Also showing ways to make a difference at the grocery store is perfect for young kids who are often tagging a long with parents on these errands. I can’t end the review without also mentioning the baby sibling who is sleeping in a sling at the end of the book , I love seeing baby wearing in books! This is a great environment themed book that works all year round not just for Earth Day.